New vaccine safety initiative triggers outrage
Corporate media outlets and their allies in academia are furious over a new vaccine safety initiative.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the revival of the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines. Congress first established the task force in 1986 to improve the safety, quality, and oversight of vaccines given to American children. It was disbanded in 1998.
The task force will work closely with the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines to recommend vaccine safety standards and practices, and support research on making vaccines safer.
"By reinstating this Task Force, we are reaffirming our commitment to rigorous science, continuous improvement, and the trust of American families," said National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya in a press release. "NIH is proud to lead this effort to advance vaccine safety and support innovation that protects children without compromise."
Giving a ‘false message’
Legacy media, however, came out in force to oppose the move by criticizing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“RFK Jr.’s HHS re-establishes childhood vaccine safety task force after pressure from his former anti-vaccine advocacy group,” reported CNN. The outlet claimed that “[t]he announcement was met with skepticism from vaccine experts, who noted pediatric vaccines are extensively studied for safety and efficacy both before they are approved and after they’re on the market.”
To support its claim, CNN quoted Dr. Paul Offit, considered one of the leading voices on vaccines. Offit, who maintains financial ties to the pharmaceutical giant Merck, is often the media’s go-to “expert” for criticism of vaccine reform.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is an anti-vaccine activist who has these fixed, immutable, science-resistant beliefs that vaccines are dangerous,” said Offit. “He is in a position now to be able to set up task forces like this one who will find some way to support his notion that vaccines are doing more harm than good.”
The New York Times ran a similar article, fretting that the public might get “the false message that vaccines are currently dangerous.”
NBC News joined in, quoting several “public health” academics who are against the revival of the task force.
“Everyone wants childhood vaccines to be as safe as possible. But reviving this panel now must be put in the context of recent HHS actions,” said Harvard public health professor Dr. Howard Koh.
‘Sowing distrust’
Dr. Bruce Gellin, an adjunct professor of medicine at Georgetown University, said Kennedy’s revival of the task force is “sowing distrust.”
“If Kennedy really wants vaccine safety to be his legacy, he can start by reading the dozens and dozens of reports and recommendations that so many have already provided over a long time,” Gellin said. “If he really wants to make a difference, he’ll need to find the resources to put those priority recommendations into action. To me, that would be a much better use of everyone’s time, rather than further sowing distrust by implying that vaccine safety was never a priority until he came to town.”
‘What’s the point now?’
Dr. Peter Hotez, a co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, also had criticism for Kennedy. Hotez, who has called for military action against those who are “anti-vaccine,” has refused invitations to debate Kennedy on the topic of vaccine safety.
“What’s the point now, other than he’ll use it as a bully pulpit to push his MAHA, anti-vaccine agenda? That’s the worry,” Hotez said. “Who’s he going to put on this committee?” he added. “Will it be like [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices], where he starts to stack it with anti-vaccine activists?”
